American Clam Chowder

Two chowders, one rivalry

New England clam chowder, the creamy version described here, has a long-running rival in Manhattan clam chowder, a tomato-based version from further south along the same coast. The dispute has occasionally turned genuinely political: Maine lawmakers reportedly considered, though never passed, a bill that would have made adding tomato to chowder illegal within the state. Whatever the truth of that story, it captures how seriously the creamy version’s identity is defended in New England.

The two versions diverge on more than color: a tomato-based chowder skips the cream entirely, giving a lighter, more acidic soup, while the New England version leans on cream and a roux-like thickened potato base for its richness.

History

Clam chowder is a thick soup made from clams, potatoes, and smoked bacon, traditionally bound with cream in its best-known version known as “New England.” The word “chowder” is thought to come from the French “chaudière,” the large cauldron that Breton and Norman fishermen and sailors reportedly brought with them when settling on the northeastern coast of America in the 17th and 18th centuries, where they were already preparing fish soups simmered communally in one large shared pot.

There’s a long-standing and still very much alive culinary rivalry between the creamy Massachusetts version, known as New England clam chowder, and the tomato-based version originating in Manhattan, known as Manhattan clam chowder. A rivalry so serious that the state of Maine reportedly considered, though never followed through, legally banning the addition of tomato to chowder within its borders. Today, the creamy version remains dominant and closely tied to the culinary identity of all of New England.

Ingredients — for 6 people

• 500 g (1.1 lb) fresh or canned clams, with their juice
• 150 g (5 oz) smoked bacon, diced
• 3 potatoes, 1 onion
• 500 ml (2 cups) heavy cream, 300 ml (1¼ cups) fish stock
• Thyme, bay leaf, saltine crackers for serving

Step-by-step American clam chowder recipe

1. Cook the smoked bacon in a large pot until crisp, setting some aside for garnish.
2. Sweat the sliced onion in the bacon fat until translucent.
3. Add the diced potatoes, fish stock, and clam juice, and simmer until the potatoes are tender.
4. Stir in the heavy cream and heat gently without boiling.
5. Add the clams right at the end of cooking, just long enough to warm them through without making them rubbery.
6. Serve hot, sprinkled with the reserved bacon and crumbled saltine crackers on the side.

Cooking Method

Technique: gently simmering a base of potatoes and stock, cream added without boiling, clams stirred in only at the very end to stay tender.

Traditional equipment: a large cast-iron pot, historically carried aboard fishing boats.

Signs to watch for: never boil the soup once the cream has been added, or it will split.

Nutrition, per serving

Calculated from the raw ingredient quantities above, divided across six servings.

Saturated fat is the figure that stands out here, at 23 g per serving — a direct consequence of the heavy cream and smoked bacon that define the New England style. A Manhattan-style version built on tomato instead of cream would carry a fraction of that saturated fat, at the cost of the dish’s characteristic richness.

Economic context

Chowder’s origins trace to fishing communities stretching a modest catch of clams across a whole pot of potatoes, cream and stock to feed a crew — a one-pot economy of scale that still defines the dish today, whether made at home or served by the bowl at a coastal restaurant.

Source: World Bank / FAO, Food Prices for Nutrition database (Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet) v4.0, 2024 data, CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.57966/41AN-KY81. Retrieved 29 July 2026. This figure describes the cost of a healthy diet in the United States generally — it is not a costing of this specific recipe.

Who this dish suits

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